Madhyamik examinee dies as fake doctor is deployed in ambulance ferrying him

Kolkata: THE rot in the healthcare system has deepened to the extent that private nursing homes are even not hesitating to depute fake doctors to attend critically ill patients.

In one such case, a school-final (Madhyamik) appearing student from Birbhum district has died because an air-conditioner mechanic was deployed in the ambulance in which he was being relocated to Kolkata.

Arjit Das (16) of Nasipur village at Nalhati in Birbhum died last night while being transported from Burdwan to Kolkata by an ambulance. His family had paid Rs 16,000 for this, out of which Rs 8,000 was charged as a fee for a doctor accompanying the ambulance.

Das was earlier admitted to Annapurna Nursing Home at Burdwan with fever and waist pain. With his condition not improving, his family asked the nursing home to refer him to Kolkata. This was agreed upon by the nursing home on the condition that a doctor will accompany him. The distressed family agreed.

But as the teenage boy turned critical, it turned out that the “doctor” accompanying him does not even know how to operate an oxygen cylinder. By the time the ambulance reached an upscale private nursing home on EM Bypass in Kolkata, the doctors found the boy dead.

It was during the questioning by them that “doctor” Sarfarjuddin Sheikh, who was in the ambulance, confessed that he was actually an air-conditioner mechanic. Shell-shocked by the revelation, the bereaved family lodged an FIR at Purba Jadavpur police station in the night itself.

Police acted swiftly and arrested both Shekih and the driver of the ambulance. A probe has been initiated against the Burdwan nursing home as it had arranged for the ambulance for a fee of Rs 16,000.

NEWSMEN is an online news portal focused on news and views from Bengal and the Bengali / Bengal diaspora spread all over. Coinciding with the 73rd anniversary of the Quit India Movement, NEWSMEN went live over the world-wide-web on 09 August 2015.